And so here it is… one of the longest posts I’ve ever written on this blog; all about the ridiculous reasons why people never take action, and why you shouldn’t let them get in your way.

Everything I’m going to go through in this post, is something that has stopped a great person from becoming phenomenal. And most of what I’m going to talk about, is something that I too have struggled with myself prior to and during the past two years.

Here are 20 of the most ridiculous reasons why people never take action on their dreams. Don’t let these get in the way of your success.

1. They Fall Victim to Others Opinions

I don’t know about you, but back when I was in school and the teachers began to talk about our futures, there was a huge emphasis on going to university in order to get a good paying job in the future.

The one thing they forget to mention in that first stat – half the people who don’t go to uni simply can’t be bothered to put any real effort into their future.

If you just took into account the ambitious people within the section of non-uni goers, they’d probably make more money on average than graduates.

Have a sit on that and let me know what you think.

The point of this being that you shouldn’t always listen to others opinions, no matter how much experience they may have. What worked for them may not work for you, and what they failed at may make them jealous of you.

2. Their Friends Don’t Have the Same Aspirations

Your friends are the people you spend the most time with, and probably have done for several years now. You’re attached to them… it’s unavoidable, and it’s good to have loyal friends in your life.

3. They Only Listen to the Opportunities That Are Given to Them

Some people think that the opportunities that are given to them are the only ones that they will ever get. For them, there’s no such thing as creating your own opportunities in life. That seems impossible within the world they’re living in.

When we’re younger, opportunities are given to us, mainly by our parents and our school teachers or friends. We have been given the opportunity to make something of ourselves. However, once you’ve left school nobody just hands you opportunities.

It’s your job to go out in the world and create these opportunities, no matter how small they may be at first.

I’ve often spoken about taking small opportunities every day such as adding someone on Facebook, that end up with you creating big opportunities for yourself, and this is what you need to be doing.

4. They Don’t Believe That They’re Smart Enough

You know the feeling when someone’s talking to you and they start to share all this powerful knowledge with you, only some of which makes sense?

You wish you had that knowledge right? I’m guessing you want it in half the time as well?

When people meet others who have enormous masses of knowledge behind the words that come out of their mouth, they instantly think that this person must just naturally be smart. They’re wrong.

Behind this person is most likely more struggles than you can ever imagine. They’ve thrown laptops against the wall, given up on more than several occasions, felt every emotion a human being can, and this is how they possess the knowledge they do.

Success is an emotional journey. Just because you don’t possess a certain amount of knowledge to start with doesn’t mean you can’t ever obtain it.

5. They Can’t Be Bothered

Remember I said above that half of the people who don’t go to university or college just can’t be bothered to do anything ambitious in the first place?

Well those people have got their own little subheading right here.

The reason they don’t take action is simply because they can’t be bothered to do so. It seems like so much effort and they’d rather skate by through life without having to lift too many fingers, than actually go out, enjoy their life and make something of themselves.

We hope that this won’t be the case for any of you guys and girls reading this article today; but if it is, why so? Drop me an email and let me know your thoughts.

6. Their Idea Seems Too Ambitious

Ideas are supposed to be ambitious. How else do you live your dream life and not just an average one?

But, people come up with these amazing, yet incredibly ambitious ideas and somewhere along the line they tell themselves that it’s pretty much impossible, and there’s no point in taking the action needed to achieve these dreams and desires.

There’s no such thing as an idea that’s too ambitious. It’s just going to be more difficult to achieve.

Look at all the crazy inventions over the years that we now take for granted. Somebody had a dream to be able to fly, and so they set to work building the Airplane. Back then people would have set that the dream to fly was an absolutely ludicrous one. Yet someone made their highly ambitious idea become a reality.

I don’t care what you’re idea may be, “limits” are being broken every day by people around the world. Are you really going to rule yourself out right from the off?

It may seem like it now with the current situation you’re in, but you still have a chance to take action! You may have to wait a little while before you can do so, or have to make some changes to your daily routine, but it’s never too late.

Go out there and make things happen!

8. They Think Every Good Idea’s Already Been Done

Ah, ridiculous reason number 8; a classic am I right?

You’ve often get people say to others that every good idea’s already been done and therefore therefor it’s impossible to take action on your life.

The problem isn’t that everything has already been done. The problem lies within their creativity and being able to unlock the full power of their imagination.

The people that struggle a little bit with creativity often think there’s not much more than can be done; until they see someone else introduce a new invention and kick themselves for not thinking of that idea. Then they repeat the same cycle of thinking.

9. They Failed… Once

Okay, so one of the biggest and most ridiculous reasons why people never take action on their ideas, their visions, is because they’ve failed once before at something very similar.

However, this time around, they’re determined not to make the same mistakes they did last time around, even if it means not trying in the first place.

Which… funnily enough, is the option most people will decide to take.

Tony Robbins once said that he believes, not achieving our goal is part of life’s design, causing us to reach deep within and really produce the best that we can.

Failure is a part of life’s design, causing you to learn from your mistakes, to grow stronger from them in order to keep getting better every time you try again.

Giving up after one failure is absolutely pointless. You need to stick it out!

10. They’re Scared of Failing

Maybe, somebody hasn’t even failed at all in their lifetime. Maybe they’re so scared of failing that they haven’t even tried to achieve their dreams at all.

I was listening to a speech from Les Brown recently, and he explained that a company was having a major downsizing, and they were offering employees $300,000 in compensation if they made the choice to leave the company.

If they didn’t take the money, they would be at risk of losing their jobs as getting nothing when the company had the downsizing.

Only 50% of the people that were eligible to take the money, did. 50% of people allow the fear of failure to stop them from doing all the things they want to do in life.

Are you going to be one of those people?

11. They Can’t Take Risks

Taking risks in life shouldn’t be optional. They’re important. Anything and everything great that anybody’s ever tried to achieve, came through taking a risk. Maybe they risked their time for something, their money, their job, whatever it may be.

But they did so with all good reason.

People often never take action in life because they’re scared of taking risks, in case something doesn’t quite work out the way they wanted it to.

12. They Think It’s Too Early

Completely opposite to you thinking that it’s too late to be able to start working on your dreams, some people think it’s too early.

Do they do this out of fear? Maybe.

Although sometimes people just think that they’re not ready to something, and that it’s just not the right time for them to start. It’s mostly psychological, and not their actual circumstances that limit their ability to do so.

There’s never a perfect time to do something. You just need to work with what you have in the current situation.

13. They Lack Self-Confidence

Not having strong confidence in yourself is a recipe for disaster in life.

It’s incredibly common for people to lack self-confidence, especially when you’re growing up and there’s a lot of pressure on you from your friends to do certain things, look and act a certain way to fit in.

And that’s what makes it so hard. If you weren’t considered cool in high school, or people gave you a hard time because of the way you looked; your confidence from that point on will be at an all time low.

Naturally, of course it will be.

So to bounce back from that and really start to go after what you want in life, you need to get over any problems you may have had in the past and finally be able to belief in yourself.

Self-confidence is the key to any success in life. It doesn’t matter which part of your life you want to improve – this change in mindset guarantees you an improved life in every situation.

If you struggle with being confident and you can’t quite seem to step out of your shell, check out some challenges you can do every day to improve your self-confidence. I’ve been doing them for a while now and they make such a difference!

14. They “Don’t Have Time”

Nobody seems to have time for anything these days.

Is this true? Or are they just not making time for anything?

I often hear people give themselves this excuse, and then a little later on I see them watching T.V the whole night. It’s their “rest time”, supposedly.

Whenever people think they don’t have time for something, they’re always incorporating their old productivity killing habits into the equation.

“I didn’t have time to go to the gym today; I was rushing about all over the place and by the time I got home I was absolutely exhausted.”

Are you serious?

You’ll never just find time for anything in life. You have to make the time for these things. And to do that, you’ll have to cut back on the lazy habits that most people get comfortable with. Watching T.V, spending hours on the phone, browsing Facebook. You get the picture.

15. They Can’t See Past the Bad to Get the Good

In my opinion, I think a lot of people struggle to visualize the long term benefits of working hard at something. They don’t get started because the pain they’d have to endure hardly seems worth it in order to achieve something.

You know, they’d say things like: “I’d have to go the gym 4 or 5 times a week for god knows how long, and eat clean in order to get a great body.”

They’re stuck on the thought of what they’d have to do now in order to get what they want.

What if things were the other way around?

What if we chose to have an amazing body right away, but then we’d have to spend the next few years working off the debt with hard work?

Sure, this would take all the fun out of it, all the joy of achievement, and the satisfaction that came with it. But do you think the people who currently can’t be bothered to go to the gym would sign up for it?

They’d be getting their dream body instantly, and would be forced to work it off and would still be putting in the hard work. Of course, this isn’t possible, and is definitely not the right way of thinking, but you can’t help but wonder whether the lazy people in the world would finally get off the couch for it.

I’m keen to hear your thoughts on this (leave a comment below).

16. They Get Distracted

I get distracted so much, it’s unreal. I try to reduce distractions by blocking the world out with headphones, and sitting in a good working environment, but they still manage to prevail on occasion.

What distracts you most?

How can you stop this from happening whilst you’re actually trying to do something productive with your time?

Distractions really do take away chunks of your time, probably far more than you really realize. Watch the video below on the time you have and then see how you feel about time. This video dissects all the time we have as human beings and removes all the time we use up grooming ourselves, sleeping, working – look at what you’re left with.

Do your best to make sure distractions don’t get the better of you. These little distractions are how others have struggled in the past to take action on their dreams.

17. Short Term Happiness Prevails

Short term always seems to be the thing that gets to people. They’d rather eat that chocolate bar and have short term happiness due to the taste, than eat healthily and have long term happiness with their body and the way they look.

Do you agree?

And it’s a sad fact that this happens. Short term happiness always seems to prevail over long term happiness, purely because of the discipline and time it take to achieve that happiness.

I think a lot of people would rather have fast food, watch a film, skip the gym etc. because it’s quick and easy for them to gain a little bit of satisfaction.

Rather than have a little bit of discipline to take the slightly more boring and difficult option in the short term, but ultimately achieve a higher level of happiness later on in life.

All good things take time.

18. They Follow the “Norm”

Getting towards the end of this list on reasons why people never take action now; another ridiculous reason is simply because they follow the normal thing to do.

Everything they do is considered as a normal thing to do, and therefore thy can never take action on their dreams, because dreams are not normal. Dreams should not be normal.

They’re our highest ambitions.

You were born unique. There is no-one else out there exactly like you. Don’t die a copy.

19. They Can’t Afford it

Money seems to be one of the biggest reasons why people never begin to go after their dreams. In some aspects it’s understandable, but in others it’s just an excuse. There’s always ways around not having enough money to start something.

Many times, the initial cost that you think something will be, can often be halved. You’re just looking at the picture of exactly how you want it to be right from the off. And that’s why you think you can’t afford it.

You have time to build up to that picture. You don’t have to start there.

For example, if you’re starting a business, and you want to have a certain amount of space, a very specific property, or equipment, which we’ll get onto in a minute. All that may not be affordable, but a lot of what you want won’t be necessary.

So start smaller, and give things time. If business does well then later on you can upgrade.

Looking at it from a different aspect, many people don’t take action on getting into shape and they can’t afford a gym membership. Hell, do bodyweight exercises in your garage or garden. It’s exactly the same and even better for your body than using weights.

For at least 50% of the people who think they can’t afford to start working towards their dreams, costs can be cut down to an affordable level.

20. They Don’t Have Access to the Right Equipment

Similar to how I mentioned money above, people do the same thing because of not having the right equipment. They’ll say that it’s not possible to start a business, or start working out because they don’t have access to the right equipment.

Normally, money would be the root cause of this. But there’s also other factors that go into being able to access the equipment you need.

The solution… is exactly the same as before. A lot of the equipment you may think you need, you probably don’t. You could easily start with a lot less, and that’s why it’s still possible to take action on your dreams in the current situation you’re in.

Summary

Don’t let these reasons ever stop you from taking action and living the life of your dreams. They’re all ridiculous, and you’d be cheating yourself out of a wonderful life.

Just as a reminder, here’s a quick breakdown of the 20 most ridiculous reasons as to why people never take action:

The fall victim to others’ opinions

Their friends don’t have the same aspirations

They only listen to the opportunities that are given to them

They don’t believe that they’re smart enough

They can’t be bothered

Their idea seems too ambitious

They think it’s too late

They think every good idea’s already been done

They failed… once

They’re scare of failing

They can’t take risks

They think it’s too early

They lack self-confidence

They “don’t have time”

They can’t see past the bad to get to the good

They get distracted

Short term happiness prevails

They follow the “norm”

They can’t afford it

They don’t have access to the right equipment

In Conclusion

So now I’ve gone through all these ridiculous reasons why people never take action, I have a few questions for you guys to end the article:

Do you have any reasons you’d like to add to this list? Leave a comment below.